dgbutterworth's bloghttp://dgbutterworth.com/blogs/dgbutterworth
noted notes - law, tools, information, knowledge, management, communication, and whatnotnow.enCamera Apps for Android - Deliver Images Worth Capturinghttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/tue-09092014-1023
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>In the history of cameras (at least my history), with constantly changing equipment and technology, a perenial question is faced by any aspiring "photographer:"</p>
<p class="rteindent1">Question: What's the best camara?&nbsp;</p>
<p class="rteindent1">Answer: The camera you have with you.</p>
<p class="rteindent1"><cite>[original author: unknown, but I first read this about 25 years ago, give or take]</cite></p>
<p>It's an accurate answer.&nbsp; Unless! - the camera that I had with me was my Samsung S4, with the factory equipped camera.&nbsp; I never got a single satisfactory image from the camera on S4 (until now), except for capturing documents for storage as PDF files.&nbsp; Relegating the S4 camera to capturing pdf files or other information bits, I concluded that, while Samsung made pretty smart smart-phones, they were not up to speed on the technology for cameras.&nbsp; Perhaps in the next upgrade ... ?</p>
<p>BUT I WAS WRONG!&nbsp; Samsung did a fine job with the camera in the S4.&nbsp; It can take pictures that are sharp and properly exposed - darn good quality actually, in my humble opinion - my compliments to Samsung!&nbsp; Samsung software, however, is seriously lacking, at least as to the S4 camera (maybe in other areas also, but that's another topic).&nbsp; Fortunately, the software is easily upgraded!&nbsp; And great software is out there! I recently added two "camera apps" to my S4 - and it has taken on a whole new life - the life of&nbsp; functional camera, worth taking pictures with.&nbsp; It is now "The best camera" - if it's the (only) one I have with me.</p>
<p>I expect that these apps would make a good addition to any android phone (or tablet) with a camera (which includes most, if not all, android phones and tablets, I believe).&nbsp; So here they are:</p>
<h1><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&amp;hl=en">Open Camera</a></h1>
<p><a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&amp;hl=en">Open Camera</a> claims to be a fully featured Camera app for phones and tablets that is both completely free <u>and ad-free!</u>, It is also opensource, so if you care to make improvements or modifications to the software (or if you just want to see how the software was written), the source code is available for download.&nbsp; (I also believe that the opensource software development process can and does, under the right conditions, produce a better software product.)</p>
<p>Open Camera lived up to it claims in all ways.&nbsp; There is simply no comparison to be made with the camera app that shipped with my S4 - Open Camera simply outperforms in every way, whatever the setting may be.&nbsp; But Open Camera does provide a wealth of flexibility for camera settings - just like a real camera.&nbsp; Some of my favorite features:</p>
<ul>
<li>takes excellent close up photos, with ease, using "macro focus" mode.</li>
<li>a variety of focus modes, allow for flexibility in acquiring images: macro, manual, continuous, auto, infinity.
<ul>
<li>I found macro and manual focus to be quite useful.&nbsp; Macro focus allows for outstanding images from several inches to many feet (I'm still experimenting on the best range, but so far macro focus mode simply works well at almost any ranges).&nbsp; Manual focus is nice, allowing for focus on a specific point in the picture frame (tap the point you want in focus) and then take a picture without further change in focus.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>ISO sensitivity can be selected (range 100 - 1600, plus auto and ISO_HJR).</li>
<li>Set white balance manually (or choose auto).</li>
<li>Timer for taking delayed photos (allows you to get in the shot, or to stabalize the camera after pushing the "shutter" button).</li>
<li>A variety of scene modes, with settings optimized accordingly (including: action, landscape, portrait, night, theatre, beach, snow, sunset, and more).
<ul>
<li>I have not yet experimented with the scene modes, but I always found them to be useful in the pocket digital point-and-shoot cameras.&nbsp; I expect they may be useful here also.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>manually adjust exposure level (+/- 3 stops - I did attempt some limited experiments with this feature, but could not see much impact in the images.&nbsp; If it can be made to work as expected, this would be great feature - useful on any camera for difficult lighting situations, such as backlight, or snow/sand.)</li>
</ul>
<p>Overall - whatever settings I was adjusting or experimenting with, Open Camera records nice, clear, well exposed images.&nbsp; For example:</p>
<p>{not the picture I want here}</p>
<p><img alt="stuffed_toys_img_20140903_204709.jpg" src="http://dgbutterworth.com/sites/default/files/u1/stuffed_toys_img_20140903_204709.jpg" style="width: 400px; height: 461px;" /></p>
<p>[photo of Astin Martin, driver: by James Bond, recent ejection: Odd-Job]</p>
<p>And in macro mode, it was easy to take clear, close-up photos - with significant magnification - which I find to be very useful simply as a magnifying glass for reading super-fine print, such as the specs of diode or resistor components on a circuit board, like this:</p>
<p>[Side note: as part of my ongoing experiment with information management, it seems that image storage and presentation is one element that requires some fine tuning.&nbsp; When I get that done, I'll add some more photos to this post, and make the ones that are here already work properly.]</p>
<p><img alt="circuit board imgage - using Open Camera with Samsung S4" src="http://dgbutterworth.com/sites/default/files/u1/circuit_board_img_20140818_025949.jpg" style="width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></p>
<p>For ordinary magnification (for those of us with challenged eye-sight), Open Camera works great, and is now my go-to app for that purpose.</p>
<p>But if I really want the maximum magnification, something more like a microscope, a specialty app exists that's worth a try.</p>
<h1><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hantor.CozyMag&amp;hl=en">Cozy Magnifier &amp; Microscope</a></h1>
<p>For high magnification, <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hantor.CozyMag&amp;hl=en">Cozy M&amp;M</a> provides some useful features, compared to Open Camera (I think you can probably take the same images with either app, but the features in Cozy M&amp;M are designed specificaly for enhancing image quality of close-up, highest magnification images).</p>
<p>Some points worth noting:</p>
<ul>
<li>To take the best image with Cozy M&amp;M, the camera (i.e. phone) and the subject should both be stationary.</li>
<li>Adjusting the contrast (using the obvious and easily accessible slider) can be very helpful in improving image quality - it seemed to help the camera focus, and it improved general image quality greating depending in subject and ambient light.</li>
</ul>
<p>All in all, Cozy M&amp;M allows for what can reasonable be identified as "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_photography">macro photography</a>" using your android phone.&nbsp; (As explained in the Wikipedia article, macro photography can be and is defined in a variety of way - at least one of which include images recorded using Cozy M&amp;M. Purists in the field of macro photograph )</p>
<h1>Open Camera and Cozy M&amp;M - The Two Camera Apps of Choice</h1>
<p>Taking images with Cozy M&amp;M is a bit more difficult than using Open Camera, but that is due mostly to the type of image being captured (big image of tiny area, taken at very close range, using high magnification). For capturing images of maximum magnification, my app of choice is Cozy M&amp;M.&nbsp; For simple magnification (to assist with reading or just to capture an interesting image), or for any other photography with my android phone, Open Camera is now my app of choice.</p>
<p>With the addition of these two apps, my S4 is now a camera to be used, with pleasure.</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 14:23:29 +0000dgbutterworth51 at http://dgbutterworth.comhttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/tue-09092014-1023#commentsAhhh, Snap! Turning off The Windows 8.1 Feature That Takes Over My Screenhttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/fri-08292014-2059
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>In Windows 8.1, when you move a window to the edge of the screen, it "snaps" into full screen mode (or fills the screen from top-to-bottom). This behaviour can be turned off.</p>
<p>My computer "Desktop" is almost always full (and then some).&nbsp; (Right now (and this a light day), the Desktop windows include: 6 Firefox browsers, 4 Directory Listings, 2 PDF/Acrobat files, 1 Notepad++ window (with 3 text-type documents open in tabs), 7 LibreOffice documents, 3 Outlook windows, and the Control Panel).&nbsp; In order to view and use the various windows, I rearrange things frequently, shuffling them aside, minimizing, and resizing things, to view windows the windows as needed.</p>
<p>The "snap" feature in Windows 8.1 makes rearranging things (to my liking) difficult.&nbsp; When I try to move a window aside (to see one below), the window snaps to a larger size - somewhat defeating my intention- when I'm trying to see a window beneath the one being moved.&nbsp; If fact, it's down right antagonizing.</p>
<p>It can be turned off (thank you, very much, and so glad your gone), as follows:</p>
<p>Open:</p>
<p class="rteindent1"><kbd>Control Panel\Ease of Access\Ease of Access Center\Make the mouse easier to use</kbd></p>
<p>Find:</p>
<p class="rteindent1"><kbd>Make it easier to manage windows</kbd></p>
<p>Check the box:</p>
<p class="rteindent1"><kbd>Prevent windows from being atomatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.</kbd></p>
<p>Phew!</p>
</div></div></div>Sat, 30 Aug 2014 00:59:04 +0000dgbutterworth49 at http://dgbutterworth.comhttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/fri-08292014-2059#commentsEthervane ActiveHotkeys - Useful utility for maximizing flexible use of your systemhttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/fri-08222014-1204
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div>I've been having trouble with strange mouse responses. (I click in a text editor window to place the cursor, and the editor jumps to the next tab in its window. Or I click on a new web link and the browser goes backwards. Irritating, to say the least.)</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Wondering if this deviant behavior may result from some interaction with another program due to some "hotkey" assignment (such as the [ctrl-click] "hotkey" used in many writing applications to open a url link in the text), I did some research on how to identify the active hotkeys on my system. &nbsp;I found this nifty utility: &nbsp;<a href="http://www.tranglos.com/activehotkeys/">http://www.tranglos.com/activehotkeys/</a></div>
<div>
<blockquote><div><strong>Ethervane ActiveHotkeys</strong><span style="background-color:rgb(244, 244, 242); font-size:14px">&nbsp;detects what global keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) are currently registered on the computer by various applications. This helps you determine which hotkeys are in use, and which are still available. All possible combinations of Alt, Ctrl, Shift and Win modifiers with regular typewriter keys are supported.</span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div>This nifty utility helped me to identify a number of useful (and active) short cuts.&nbsp; While it does not show what the active shortcuts do, a little experimentation with the shortcuts allows for identification of the usefulness of those shortcuts.</div>
</div></div></div>Fri, 22 Aug 2014 16:04:42 +0000dgbutterworth48 at http://dgbutterworth.comhttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/fri-08222014-1204#commentsDrupal - A New Tool Tapped for Information and Knowledge Management (Starting w/ This Site)http://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/2013-11-08-000000
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>
<a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> comes from behind in the race for selection to serve my&nbsp;web-site management software needs. &nbsp;Henceforth, Drupal will provide the&nbsp;backbone for this website, including creation, content management, authoring, styles/themes, data storage/management, document management, and whatever else I can dream up and concoct for this website. &nbsp;I intend to experiment with the possible (and probably the impossible) for management of information (and knowledge) via the web.</p>
<h1>
More than Just A Content Management System</h1>
<p>
Content Management&nbsp;Systems (&quot;CMS&quot;) are the basic software tool used for managing a website. &nbsp;The basic tool designed for&nbsp;Drupal provides outstanding core functionality, for&nbsp;</p>
<p>
I have a vision of how computers/software should work for us! &nbsp;In<span style="line-height:1.5">&nbsp;my vision, all our computers/devices/apps/phones/tablets (I know that&#39;s redundant, but that&#39;s sort of the point) will run software that&nbsp;works together as a&nbsp;(nearly?) seamless team for&nbsp;information and knowledge management. &nbsp;I want these tools readily at hand anywhere (smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop) that will provide for&nbsp;organizing, classifying, storing, retrieving, managing, researching, writing, manipulating, presenting, analyzing and otherwise using information.</span></p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<span style="line-height:1.5">Managing a simple website&nbsp;(such as this one)&nbsp;provides a&nbsp;small example of information/knowledge management, and a number of tools exist for And many websites provide&nbsp;&nbsp;, documents, and knowledge - on a flexible platform. &nbsp;</span><a href="http://drupal.org" style="line-height: 1.5;">Drupal</a><span style="line-height:1.5"> seems to have the foundation for bring these tools together, and this is now my start.</span></p>
<p>
For this start,<a href="http://drupal.org"> Drupal</a> is up and running smoothly as the foundation of dgbutterworth.com.&nbsp; Installation and setup were easy, requiring just a few clicks of the mouse to install the <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> core, including a MySQL database.&nbsp; A few minutes later, I had a home page. Credit for the ease of installation goes to my webhost - <a href="http://x.co/2mYQX">GoDaddy.com</a>.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a>&#39;s structure and logic seem to all fit together into a workable network of content characterization and presentation.&nbsp; A wide range of modules (14,000+ and count) exist to extend the functionality available for managing information and presentation.&nbsp; I&#39;ve started playing with the available tools.</p>
<p>
Note that <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> was not my first choice.&nbsp; It&#39;s my second choice on the live site, after harrowing trial and error, and final capitulation to failure with using <a href="http://www.joomla.org">Joomla!</a>&nbsp; The specs and promises of <a href="http://www.joomla.org">Joomla!</a>&#39;s functionality offered promise (with enough time and determination), so I went live with it. Maybe my head and Joomla! were/are just a bad mix, but as I delved into really trying to structure <a href="http://www.joomla.org">Joomla!</a> - actually, just trying to understand and use the structure - I failed, miserably. I found no logic, and no satisfaction.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a>&#39;s structure makes sense. Thing&#39;s fit together. Not in straight line - but interconnected in a comprehensible pattern. We&#39;ll see where it goes. (Also worth noting that the version of <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> offered for easy install is nearly current (<a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a> Core 7.22 compared to 7.23). The Joomla! easy install version offered by GoDaddy.com was a major upgrade behind the current live version at <a href="http://www.joomla.org">Joomla!</a> (Joomla! 2.5 compared to 3.1(?)) (maybe version 3 of Joomla! makes more sense - it&#39;s possible).</p>
<p>
Webhosting win: <a href="http://x.co/2mYQX">GoDaddy.coml</a>, from behind, with easy install and domain registrar tech (and price).</p>
<p>
I also spent some time looking for good web hosting solutions. GoDaddy won (obviously), for two reasons: 1) the variety of easy-install web apps (particularly Joomla! and <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a>, but there are more), and 2) GoDaddy is a real, live domain registrar (not just a reseller), which helped greatly in my time of need. Oh, also, their prices are great (not the cheapest, but close). If your looking for hosting - they have good deals - check it out:<a href="http://affiliate.godaddy.com/redirect/9EEACC714378002B903344DD39E3465FF7677DF05C8B65494D5F964EDE40A0763B9FEB90B66AFA9F75B1037B42F94525" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="50% off Hosting for your Website at GoDaddy.com!"> 50% off Hosting for your Website at GoDaddy.com!</a><img alt="" src="http://affiliate.godaddy.com/content/spacer.png?q=9EEACC714378002B903344DD39E3465FF7677DF05C8B65494D5F964EDE40A0763B9FEB90B66AFA9F75B1037B42F94525" style="height:0px; width:0px" /></p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:29:33 +0000dgbutterworth7 at http://dgbutterworth.comhttp://dgbutterworth.com/blog-entry/2013-11-08-000000#comments